Browsing by department "Lärarutbildning"

Objectives. The purpose of the study is to study the experiences of 5–6-year-old kindergarteners from swimming school. The study is interested in what kind of experiences children have from swimming school, how they describe their own swimming skills and what significance play plays in swimming school. The theoretical background of the study is built on three main themes. Initially, pre-school children are treated as mobile, physical activity, motor development and learning, basic motor skills, exercise skills and motivation in children's exercise. The next big theme is swimming lessons and the concepts that are central to it. Finally, we turn to experience as a phenomenon. The study has a self-reflective approach. Methods. Twelve children aged 5 to 6 years participated in the study. The group of children was from a kindergarten in South Helsinki. The research material was obtained through participatory observation and an individual interview. I myself work as a teacher in a swimming school group. The analysis of the research interview material was performed by phenomenological and narrative analysis. Results and conclusions. Children’s experiences of swimming school varied according to their previous experiences in the water. They also felt, for example, that different things were nice and not nice things at a swimming school. Most of the children felt that they had learned to swim during swimming school. The children were motivated towards the swimming school. This was evident in their interest in training, and their motivation also emerged in the children's speeches. The importance of free play in the swimming school was highlighted in the children's interviews as well as during the swimming school period. Time must be left for free play, even if it is a guided swimming school. Free play was important for the children and learning also takes place during it. In general, good teaching and differentiation as well as individualization are emphasized in swimming lessons.

Aims. The purpose of this thesis is to study subject teachers’ conceptions of the support in learning and school attendance given in Finnish upper secondary schools. Due to the amendment of the Basic Education Act the support is now three tiered and emphasizes early interventions, which requires subject teachers to have more special pedagogical knowhow than they used to. This study aims to analyse, how subject teachers see their own role implementing the support and how the subject teacher system and structures of the school affect to teachers’ possibilities to support their students. Methodology. The thesis is a qualitative case study and the analysing methods are discourse analysis and thematic analysis. The research material consists of six semi-structured interviews of subject teachers. Results and conclusions. The study groups are heterogeneous and too big in relation to students’ needs. Teachers have to prioritize, to whom they give the support. Opportunity for consultation and cooperation with the special needs teacher is highly appreciated when implementing the support. Subject teachers’ familiarity with the students is considered important. Subject teachers’ knowledge about the three tier support system is mediocre, yet they consider not to have time for further education. The teachers are interested in learning of the students. However, because of lack of competence and time subject teachers externalize the implementation of the support to the special needs teacher. Being a form teacher expands the subject teachers’ job description to documenting and coordinating the support. In schools the functioning practises that would strengthen subject teachers’ commitment in all three tiers of support needs to be established. By reorganizing the structures of teaching and cooperation, it is possible to improve the subject teachers’ possibility to provide the support that the students’ needs require. The subject teachers’ special educational competence should be increased. The subject teachers don’t have sufficient knowledge about the three tier support system and they consider documentation of the support unnecessary. They may nonetheless, be able to support the students successfully by using different kinds of pedagogical methods and various well-timed and individualised measures of support.

Tiivistelmä - Referat – Abstract The purpose of this study was to describe, how the special education reform has changed the work of resource special education teachers. During the years 2009 and 2010 the special education system changed in Finland. In 2009 the annual State contribution to special education students was suspended in order to decrease the amount of special education students in Finnish schools. In 2010 the Basic Education Act was changed and the three tier educational support system was introduced to comprehensive schools. The new support system aimed at early identification and right timed support as well as to increasing inclusive pedagogy by providing the support needed in local schools. To fulfill this, Finnish schools started to invest in multi professional collaboration, co-teaching and collaboration between home and school. Previous research has indicated that multi professional collaboration, collaboration between home and school and identifying the support needs early on were already working in 2012. There were however a clear lack in co-teaching and in flexible grouping, in part time special education resources and how it was targeted. It has also been shown that special education teacher´s work has started to involve too many tasks. In this study the special education teachers describe, how their work has changed since the special education reform took place in Finland. Teachers also tell how they would develop their work profile. Five experienced special education teachers teaching in elementary school around Helsinki region took part in this study. The material consisted of theme interviews and it was analyzed by content analysis. It was found out that inclusive local school, early identification and collaboration has increased the duties, but has not decreased teaching time. Positive changes were clearer division of work, deeper collaboration between the personnel and teachers, better knowledge of pupil´s level of learning. Teachers also told that inclusive pedagogy has removed the stigma of special education. The negative changes were the work load of paper work, meetings and consultation has grown. The local school policy has had an influence on academic performance, which has become poorer and more pupil need more specific support manage school. The special education teachers would increase their resources and would decrease their duty to teach by two hours per week.

Goal: Inclusion is an increasingly popular and current theme within educational sciences. In earlier studies, inclusion as a term has evolved from a relatively narrow definition consisting primarily of pupils with special needs towards a wider spectrum taking all members of a school community into account. According to various theories and official documents used as sources for this thesis, inclusion additionally looks at a person from a primarily intersectional perspective. In this study, the primary goal is to look into how inclusion is percepted from the standpoint of teachers, investigate how inclusion takes its place in school on a daily basis and find out what teachers would need to be able to implement inclusion as part of their daily teaching methods. Another goal of this research is to compare the perception teachers have of inclusion to the inclusion that is presented in theories and official documents that are commonly used guidelines for inclusion implementation. Method: The methodology chosen for this qualitative research is phenomenology. Semi-structured interviews were used as the method and the interviews were supported with a predesigned interview guide. The structure of the interviews was built around the most significant themes in this research. A total of eight (8) Swedish-speaking comprehensive school teachers were interviewed. All of these interviewees were officially qualified teachers, and they were employed either in the region of Uusimaa or Pohjanmaa. The interviewees had different professional and academic backgrounds. Some of them had been active in the profession for up to 20 years, while others had less than five years of work experience. Some of these teachers had studied more special pedagogy that what is usually included in teacher studies. The research material was analyzed through a theme content analysis forming a result that was then divided into separate categories. Results: The perceptions on inclusion varied quite substantially, with some giving it quite a narrow definition and others percepted in as being a broader concept such defined by Ainscow & Booth (1998) in their book. Work experience and educational history had an impact on how the teachers defined inclusion in their schools. All participants considered inclusion as an important theme in the school world. Good co-operation and a culture of acceptance and participation were seen as important aspects to ensure successful inclusion. A lack of resources, the sense of diversity amongst pupils and their own skillset in inclusion were aspects that they felt hindered inclusion. The unified culture amongst Swedish-speaking Finns was also brought up as an example of a theme that can turn into a barrier for inclusion. In addition, some other specific features Finnish school culture were seen as problematic. Based on the research, it can be stated that the acceptance and commitment to diversity is crucial for the successful implementation of inclusion. Updating the skillset of teachers, building a stronger cooperation between various stakeholders and pushing for a cultural change in the school world are concrete examples of ways to strengthen the development of inclusion. This can be established based on both the research, but also on the theories and official documents used the build the theoretical background of this thesis.

In this study it was investigated, how arithmetic fluency and reading skills are associated with mathematical problem solving skills. 168 sixth graders from four cities participated in the study. Significant association was found only between arithmetic fluency and mathematical problem solving skills as indicated by SEM regression model. Children were divided into three achievement groups by their arithmetic fluency test performance, and differences between these achievement groups were analyzed. In group comparison it was found out that mathematical learning difficulty group and at risk for mathematical learning difficulty group differed from children with average or above performance, but not from each other in mathematical problem solving skills. These results indicate that difficulties in mathematical problem solving skills might result from difficulties in arithmetic fluency. This study extends previous findings that mathematical word problems are difficult for children with mathematical learning difficulties, and this applies to mathematical problem solving tasks as well.

Man has lived in space for 20 years. The importance of housing and living in space to man has been viewed as physiological and psychological changes, such as from the perspectives of nutrition, stress tolerance, or muscle endurance, but not from the perspective of everyday life. While astronauts are on expedition their main job is scientific research. However, the station is inhabited and lived for long periods of time, eating, hygiene and spending time with colleagues. The purpose of this study is to look at living and everyday life at the station from the perspective of home economics. The study has looked at videos produced on the ISS International Space Station, which can be found on YouTube’s video service. The selection criteria for the videos were that they highlight housing, everyday life and household activities. The material has been analysed by thematising and classifying the situations that have occurred in the videos according to living, everyday practices and household activities. The material was examined from the perspective of how housing is organized and how everyday life and household functions come into play in a non-home environment. According to the study, living in the station and in use of the premises, features and functions can be perceived that are related to home environments. Astronauts live in very small spaces, so versatility is necessary. Defining the ISS space station as a household is challenging, but with certain criteria this can be done, as everyday routines and household activities can be identified in that form of housing and living. Astronauts have a very regular everyday life with rhythms. In the morning, they wash up and eat breakfast. This is followed by the start of the working day with changing tasks or scientific experiments. The content of the working day also includes daily fitness. Astronauts have at least three meals a day and they are communal situations. In the evening, the crew has free time. They can contact the family, read a book, or just look at the globe spinning below from the window. Doing everyday activities with microgravity makes them a new kind of challenge and, on the other hand, fun to perform.

Objectives. The objective of this study is to determine the opportunities and challenges regarding customer-inspired teaching entities in handicrafts in comprehensive school, in which the students design and make crafts for someone other than himself or herself. These customer-inspired teaching entities are a timely research topic, as in our individualism centered culture it is more important than ever to teach children and youth to consider the opinions and feelings of others. These teaching entities are strongly linked to user-inspired design, which is increasingly used in the development of products and services. The research questions are: 1. How have customer-inspired teaching entities been implemented in handicrafts in comprehensive school? 2. What challenges do customer-inspired teaching entities face? 3. Why are customer-inspired teaching entities used? Methods. This study was carried out as a survey utilizing both quantitative and qualitative methods. The research material was collected from comprehensive school handicraft teachers using an electronic questionnaire containing both open and closed questions. 45 handicraft teachers completed the survey. The closed questions were analyzed quantitatively using SPSS. The answers to the open questions were analyzed using different sorts of content analyses. Results and conclusions. It seems that there are usually no more than three customer-inspired teaching entities in a school year, and they account for under 20 % of all handicraft’s teaching entities. Students had made handicrafts mostly to their family members or other relatives and acquaintances or the school itself. Customer’s participation to the design process of the product varied, but participation to the assessment was less common. Sometimes students had designed and made products as a group, but this was rather rare. The biggest challenges were motivating the students, their low skill levels and lack of time. Customer-inspired teaching entities were seen particularly fit for teaching collaboration, interaction and design skills, as well as for teaching empathy and to take others into account. Most respondents held it important to utilize customer-inspired teaching entities in handicrafts in comprehensive school.

The purpose of the study is to highlight the processes of autism spectrum disorder’s social construction and to construe reality in behalf of more equal and free society. This thesis targets the theoretical framework of social constructionism to specific social contexts that illustrate autism spectrum disorder through real life experience. Material used in this thesis is published by the Finnish Association for Autism as a part of their 100 autisms campaign. Material is interpreted as a political statement by the Finnish Association for Autism that aims to advance positive knowledge of autism spectrum disorder. Analysis of this study is conducted with discourse analysis using Erving Goffman’s sociological perspective to interaction and theory on facework. The theoretical framework of social constructionism showed the social construction of autism spectrum disorder through language based meanings that gave the phenomenon its construed essence. As an element of social interaction autism spectrum disorder was to explain and help, but also something that brought both challenge and joy to other participants of interaction. Autism spectrum disorder was found to be an unnecessary element in certain circumstances.

Purpose. Around 3-15% of all pupils have dyslexia. According to the core curriculum, student assessment should be conducted in a comprehensive way, considering students’ individual difficulties. However, assessment instructions might be considered vague. Earlier studies have also shown that teachers may perceive assessment as complicated, particularly when it comes to students with special needs. The purpose of the study is to describe, analyze and interpret how secondary school teachers experience assessment and grading of pupils with dyslexia. The purpose is also to explore how pupils are enabled to show their knowledge in an adequate way. Furthermore, teachers’ perceptions of assessment fairness with regard to pupils with dyslexia are discussed. Methods. The research was conducted as a qualitative study with a phenomenographic research approach. The material consists of eight semi-structured, individual interviews with teachers working in two Swedish-speaking secondary schools i Finland. The collected material was analyzed using thematic analysis. Results and conclusions. Teachers expressed a genuine will to support pupils with dyslexia and they stated that they could assess pupils in a flexible way. Cooperation with special education teachers was perceived as important. The versatility of the core curriculum was regarded as an advantage for students with dyslexia. The most used accommodations were oral responses, extended time and test writing in a small group. Double assessment, prioritized content and adapted tests were also used, but teachers had different approaches. A student’s positive lesson activity could lead to a better grade. Language teachers struggled with the assessment of misspelled words. IT software was not widely used. The teachers stated that they did their best to take students’ difficulties into consideration when giving them grades, and they normally also thought their assessment was fair. The study shows that teachers do their very best to assess students with dyslexia, but there are differences in procedures between teachers, which might lead to unequal assessment.

Dialogicality is an actual topic in pedagogical studies. Both in theoretical and ordinary speech, the term is often used as a synonym of discussion and interaction. The use of the concept, however, only seldom reveals the equivocal nature of the phenomenon. In pedagogical discourses, it is often difficult to discern the background conceptions or theories determining in each case the concept of dialogue. The aim of the present study is to address this challenge and help to clarify the situation by examining the various ways in which dialogicality has been understood in pedagogical studies in Finland in the 21st century. The research material consisted of 24 international research publications written in English. The material was first studied in relation to the notions and definitions of dialogicality put forward in them, and these were then analysed in the light of Hans-Georg Gadamer’s hermeneutical philosophy. The research questions to be answered were: 1. How is dialogicality defined in the pedagogical research in Finland during the las two decades 2. What do these conceptions reveal of the understanding of dialogicality, when related to Gadamer’s phenomenological-hermeneutical understanding of its nature? The research combines two different approaches: the material was organized with the method of systematic literature review and it was analysed through philosophical research. The study’s vantage point, and the theoretical framework directing its questioning, was constituted by the phenomenological-hermeneutical thought of Hans-Georg Gadamer. According to the results of the study, there are four central theoretical frameworks defining the research of dialogicality in the pedagogical research in Finland in the 21st century. Apparently, the studies are to a certain extent compatible with each other in their thematic content and in their descriptions of interconnected phenomena, but their ways of understanding the nature of dialogicality prove to be incommensurate. When analysed with the help of Gadamer’s hermeneutics, the research also shows itself as internally divided: the decisive differences are, firstly, whether dialogicality is understood as communication of knowledge, and secondly, whether dialogue is understood instrumentally as a method. With the help of Gadamer’s hermeneutical though, the study attempts to clarify the phenomenon of dialogue and to sharpen the required conceptual grasp and so to elaborate pedagogical research of dialogicality.